› added 6 years ago

83

TIL of Canadian soldier Léo Major, who in 1944 freed the Dutch town of Zwolle by single-handedly capturing 93 German soldiers

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j69BE TIL that octopuses have three hearts, and two of them stop beating when they swim.
OBGg TIL in the 1st edition of The Hobbit, Gollum willingly bets Bilbo his ring on the outcome of the riddle-game, parting ways amicably. Tolkien changed this to fit The Lord of the Rings. Explaining the original account as a lie made up by Bilbo with subsequent editions containing the “true” account.
6ENwX TIL that a poet enciphered a poem into the DNA sequence of an "unkillable" bacteria, ensuring that his words will survive billions of years, beyond the human race and the Earth itself
VBOwp TIL Diatomaceous earth is made from the fossilized remains of tiny, aquatic organisms called diatoms. It is used in pest control to kill insects like bedbugs by absorbing the oils and fats from the insect's exoskeleton
9m6p TIL that the US Air Force is the only branch of US military to ever directly fight the USSR. The conflict occurred over the Serbian town of Niš during WWII. Both sides mistook each other as Germans and both sides classified all reports of the battle as Top Secret.